Joey Crawford is a veteran NBA referee. / Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports

MIAMI - NBA referee Joey Crawford is part of the league's 12-man pool for officiating Finals games, so it's not exactly a surprise Crawford got the call for Game 6 between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.

That doesn't mean a few eyebrows weren't raised, considering Crawford's history with the Spurs - namely his 2007 incident in which Crawford was suspended for the rest of the season, including the playoffs for "improper conduct and lack of professionalism" after ejecting Spurs big man Tim Duncan from a game late in the 2006-07 season.

Duncan was also fined $25,000.

This is the second game Crawford has officiated in the Heat-Spurs series and the 13 game he has officiated this playoff season. Crawford called Game 2 - a 103-84 Heat victory - along with Ed Malloy and Ken Mauer. Mike Callahan and Mauer join Crawford for Game 6.

The playoffs began with a 33-person referee pool, and those refs were determined by a season-long grading system. Each official is graded after each game based on their performance: play calling, court presence, fitness, personal qualities (works well with others) and off-court duties (application of rules, off-court tests).

The referees pool is whittled to 25 for the conference semifinals, 18 for the conference finals and 12 for the Finals based on playoff grades in conjunction with season-long grades. These are, according to the NBA, the best of the best refereeing in the Finals.

According to nbastuffer.com, which tracks the games each referee works, the home team in games which Joey Crawford officiated won 56.6% of the time during the regular season and 58.3% of the time during the playoffs this season. The fouls have been pretty even in the postseason for Crawford's crew - 49.9% of the fouls have been called against the road team and 50.1% against the home team.

Crawford, one of the league's most recognizable referees because of his bald head, has called NBA games for 36 seasons. He has called more than 300 playoff games, and this his 49th Finals game - the most among active referees.

He is the brother of former Major League Baseball umpire Jerry Crawford and son of the later former MLB umpire Shag Crawford.

In an story for The New York Times during last season's playoffs, Crawford wrote he once broke his finger assessing someone a technical foul (that's why he does the soft finger-on-finger technical finger signal now) and began seeing a sports psychologist.

Crawford admitted the Duncan incident was one of the biggest regrets of his career.

"The Duncan thing probably changed my life," Crawford wrote. "It was just - you come to the realization that maybe the way you've been doing things is not the proper way and you have to regroup, not only on the court but off the court. I had seen a sports psychologist before that. But after, I saw him a lot more. â?¦ It gave me a new perspective."

In that 2007 incident, Duncan, who was on the bench, claims Crawford ejected him for laughing and said Crawford challenged him to a fight. Duncan also said Crawford entered that game with a "personal vendetta against me."

At a Halloween party last year, Duncan and Spurs guard Tony Parker were photographed holding fake guns at a bald-headed person dressed in an NBA referees uniform with the name "Crawford" and the number "17" on the back of the shirt. The NBA the Spurs declined comment when the picture became public in December and neither player was disciplined by the league.